Conservation: Renewable Energy and Energy Essay

Submitted By boz14
Words: 1965
Pages: 8

Conservation
Megan Boswell Whenever you conserve energy you not only save money, you also reduce the demand of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas. Less burning of fossil fuels also means lower emissions of CO2, the primary contributor to global warming, and other pollutants. Energy Conservation refers to reducing energy consumption through using less of an energy service. Energy conservation doesn’t differ from efficient energy use, which refers to using less energy for a constant service. This means using power to have the lights on until you flip the light switch to turn it off. Or the water pressure that powers a faucet to continue running until it is turned off. Even though energy conservation reduces energy services, it can result in increased environmental quality, national security, personal financial security and higher savings. It is at the top of the sustainable energy hierarchy (1). It also lowers energy costs by preventing future resource depletion. So by conserving energy slowly it will make the environment a better place. The less resources we take out of the environment the more regulated the environment can run. People wonder why there have been such things as global warming, they wonder why taking so much good out of the environment and replacing it with so much bad, has effect on weather and such. For example when standing next to a small creek and the water is running over the rocks repetitively whenever you take a rock away it stirs up mud and then the water doesn’t have a rock to run over so it carries the mud faster down the creek. There are many things that you can do to practice conservation.
1. Turn your refrigerator down. They account for about 20% of the household electricity use.
2. Set your clothes washer to warm or cold water setting, not hot. It uses too much CO2 whenever the setting is set to hot.
3. Make sure your dishwasher is completely full whenever you use it. Turning off the dry automatically function saves 20% of electric. This means to not run the dishwasher until you have filled it all with dirty plates and you can get them out and hand dry them one by one which I think is better anyways.
4. Turn down the water heater thermostat. This uses less CO2 by just using less hot water.
5. Don’t over heat or over cool your house. In the winter set your thermostat to 68 in the daytime and 55 at night. In the summer leave it at 78 all day.
6. Inspect windows and ductwork for any air leakage. If you do feel air leaking at duct joints, use duct tape to seal them. Winterize windows with weather stripping and caulk. This will reduce heating costs by 10%
7. Use kitchen, bath and all other fans sparingly. Leaving them on too long will suck away a lot of the household heat. This causing you to turn the heat on higher, this defeating the purpose all together.
8. Keep drapes and shades open during the day. Letting the sunlight in will help heat the house naturally so you close them at night to help warm the windows.
9. Use natural gas for heating. Consider switching to a natural gas heating system. Natural gas is less expensive than other heating fuels.
10. Turn off the stove five to 10 minutes before cooking time is up and let trapped heat finish the cooking. Or you can also cook the meal the entire time then when done you can open the oven and leave it cracked open. This releases the heat into the room that would just vaporize in the oven behind a closed door. I would only recommend this if there aren’t any small children in the house. (4)
There are ways to save Fossil Fuels also:
1. When conserving energy that is conserving fossil fuels. People can do the simplest of things in order to conserve energy. This can be as simple as turning off lights when a room is not in use, replacing light bulbs with longer-lasting energy sufficient bulbs and only having the AC on whenever there are people at home. Also making sure that the home has the proper insulation to trap in the heat and air